PROFILE

In this edition of The SportsField Management Interview , we meet Pamela Sherratt , turfgrass specialist and lecturer , Department of Horticulture & Crop Science , The Ohio State University ( OSU ). Sherratt teaches undergraduate classes in plant and turfgrass science , and manages online certificates for industry professionals . She also develops seminars and workshops for turf managers and youth groups in the green industry , speaks at conferences , and writes for several media outlets . She received her BSc ( Hons ) horticulture degree from the University of Central Lancashire in England , and her MS turfgrass degree from OSU . Sherratt served on the STMA Board of Directors in 2010 and 2011 , and was the recipient of the Dr . William H . Daniel Founders Award in 2003 and 2018 .

SportsField Management ( SFM ): Please tell us about your background , what attracted you to a career in the turfgrass industry , and your overall career path .

Sherratt : I ’ m from an arable farming community called Scarisbrick in England . So , from about the age of 12 , I would work what we called “ Saturday jobs ,” packing potatoes , packing beets , cutting cabbages and mushrooms . My uncle Stan also had a plant nursery a few miles away . I would bike over there , and help with pricking out , potting and working with plants . I think I ’ ve always known I wanted to work with plants , and I have always loved it .

I left school at 16 , like most English kids do , or did , and I got a job at a plant nursery , and one day a week I would go to college . It was a government initiative called the Youth Training Scheme , although we nicknamed it the youth torture scheme . You got paid 25 pounds a

week , and you would put in 32 hours of work per week . Your boss would work you hard , and one day a week you would go to college . So I did sort of a 101 level course in horticulture .

When I was 16 , my mom also sent me to a stay-over summer camp for a week , and I got to do horticulture at a college . I absolutely loved it . We did welding and tractor driving and pricking out and double digging and planting vegetable gardens . It was a terrific week , and that solidified it for me ; I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life . That is why I started the STEM camp at Ohio State a couple years ago , because I wanted to see if we could get young people involved by doing a similar taster course .

When I was 17 , after my year at the plant nursery and the day release college , I did a National Certificate in Horticulture , which was one year , full time , live in at Myerscough College , which is a big agricultural college in England .

Then I did a National Diploma in Horticulture ( NDH ), which was a three-year course ( similar to an associate ’ s degree ). Both of my internships on the NDH were at plant nurseries , because I wanted to be landscape designer and work with ornamentals and landscape plants .

I graduated with my NDH when I was 20 . Myerscough College opened up a job for a technician in horticulture , so I applied for the job and got it . I went from being a student at Myerscough to being a technician , working with the faculty and staff , teaching the practicums . The professor would do the lecture , and then the students would come to me for the practicums . That was in 1990 , and between 1990 and 1999 I did my four-year degree ( Bsc . Hons degree in Horticulture ) part time while I worked at Myerscough . During that time I was a technician for the greenhouse team and landscape team , but I also did

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